2019-2020 Annual Report About the India Initiative
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2019-2020 ANNUAL REPORT ABOUT THE INDIA INITIATIVE The India Initiative, founded in November 2015, builds on Georgetown University’s core strengths—academic excellence, location in Washington, DC, and Jesuit mission of service to the world—to advance research and teaching around India and world affairs and create a platform for high- level dialogue among American and Indian leaders from government, business, civil society, and the academy. ABOUT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Established in 1789, Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States. One of the world’s leading academic and research institutions, Georgetown enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across nine schools. A global institution, Georgetown provides a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. The university’s educational mission and international partnerships seek to advance the global common good. Letter from the Initiative Director 5 CONTENTS 6 Events 12 University Engagement Faculty Research 16 2019–2020 Annual Report | 3 Georgetown University INDIA INITIATIVE PROGRAMMING Building a hub for conversation, research, and education on India and U.S.-India relations India in Georgetown Exchange Georgetown in India of Ideas • Curricular and extracurricular • Student travel • India Ideas Conference opportunities for students • Supporting student and • FICCI India-US Forum of • Hindi language and India- faculty research Parliamentarians focused courses • Fulbright and Critical • Georgetown Leadership Seminar • Event programming Language Scholarship • Fulbright-Nehru Scholars winners • International Visitor Leadership Program • Indiaspora Philanthropy Conference • US-India Knowledge Exchange 4 | Georgetown University India Initiative The India Initiative was begun in 2015 with the goal of making Georgetown FROM University a premier hub for conversations about India and U.S.-India relations. While much remains to be done to fulfill the full scale of that ambition, we are THE humbled and encouraged by how far we have come in just a few years. INITIATIVE Over the past five years, the initiative brought over a hundred different events and DIRECTOR speakers to campus, and the breadth of its programming widened. While political and policy discussions dominate, as befits our location in the capital of the United States, during the 2019-2020 academic year we also supported major cultural events featuring world-class musicians and dancers such as Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna, Sufi singer Zila Khan, and the ever-popular Georgetown tradition of Rangila. None of this would have been possible without the generous support of our donors or the logistical backing of our many partners on campus. The most gratifying outcome of this collective effort on India is the engagement of our students. This year Georgetown had two Fulbright-Nehru fellows in India, and by year’s end another two students had won this prestigious post-graduate fellowship. Three recent graduates have taken full-time positions with IDInsight, a leading research organization in New Delhi, joining other young Hoyas who are hungry for the professional opportunities today’s India offers. This flow of people and ideas from the Hilltop to India is fueled by student trips organized by the Center for Social Justice, Research and Teaching’s MAGIS program; the McDonough School of Business’s Global Business Experience program; and the Walsh School of Foreign Service’s Centennial Lab initiative. In fall 2019, Sara Rotenberg (NHS’20) and Kyra Kocis (SFS’20), both of whom have spent considerable time in India over the past two years on university-sponsored global experiences, won Rhodes and Marshall scholarships respectively. Our students and graduates are the best advertisements for the value of a Georgetown education, and this sustained, multifaceted engagement with India is being reciprocated by rising enrollment of Indian students in Georgetown’s world-renowned undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. We hope you share our pride and excitement as you read about our inspiring faculty, students, and guests in this annual report. The terrible COVID-19 pandemic requires that we pause our activities, but the foundation laid over these past five years will support renewed investment when the time is right in the hopefully near future. Until that happy time, we wish you and yours good health. Sincerely, Irfan Nooruddin Director Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Indian Politics 2019–2020 Annual Report | 5 EVENTS Georgetown has long served as an international convening power in Washington, DC—attracting leaders from a variety of industries and disciplines for constructive discourse. Drawing on this strength, the India Initiative invites leading academics, industry practitioners, and policy experts to engage in dialogue with the Georgetown community. India Initiative events raise awareness in political and scholarly communities as well as among the broader public about pressing issues facing India. The India Initiative strives to make Indian culture accessible to the Georgetown community by engaging with leading artists, performers, religious leaders, and intellectuals to host Indian cultural events and discussions. 6 | Georgetown University India Initiative EVENTS NATIONALISM IN GANDHI’S INDIA OCTOBER 23, 2019 To mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, the India Initiative hosted Rajmohan Gandhi to speak about his grandfather’s legacy in an era of nationalism. Gandhi spoke of the Mahatma’s dream for India and the challenges in India’s current sociopolitical landscape. He called for people to make changes in their own communities, emphasized the importance of learning from past struggles for liberty, and spoke about building solidarity between communities. Rajmohan Gandhi is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has previously worked as a visiting professor at Michigan State University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. He has also served as a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha (upper house). He is the author of a number of books including Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times (2018), Why Gandhi Still Matters: An Appraisal of the Mahatma’s Legacy (2017), and Understanding India’s Founding Fathers (2016). NEW KINGS OF THE WORLD SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 In her book New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and ABOVE K-Pop (2019), Fatima Bhutto explores the rise of non-Western global Rajmohan Gandhi reflects on media. Bhutto discussed the values and stories conveyed in Bollywood Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy. films, dizi (Turkish soap operas), and South Korean pop music, and she described how they are eclipsing American soft power abroad. BELOW Fatima Bhutto is an acclaimed poet and writer. Her books include Hemal Shringla speaks about Indian the family memoir Songs of Blood and Sword (2015), The Shadow of the film and women’s empowerment. Crescent Moon (2014), and The Runaways (2019). Bhutto grew up in Syria and Pakistan and is niece to former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and granddaughter of former Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. WOMEN OF BOMBAY FILM FESTIVAL MARCH 1, 2020 In partnership with the Embassy of India Student Hub, the India Initiative hosted a film festival with screenings centered on advancing female voices and stories and promoting the theme of women’s empowerment. The film festival focused on the insights of the women of Bombay, capturing the fusion of traditions and cultures from the city’s long history. 2019–2020 Annual Report | 7 EVENTS ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT UNDER UNCERTAINTY SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Duvvuri Subbarao, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, finance secretary, and World Bank lead economist, discussed emerging economy perspectives on central banking and his experiences leading the Reserve Bank of India during the 2008 global economic crisis. Duvvuri Subbarao was the twenty-second governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2008-2013) and previously served as the finance secretary to the Government of India and secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. He also held a career as an Indian Administrative Service officer, worked as a lead economist for the World Bank, and authored the book Who Moved My Interest Rate? (2016). BANGLADESH AFTER RANA PLAZA FEBRUARY 11, 2020 In partnership with the South Asian Policy & Research Initiative, the India Initiative hosted Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena for a discussion about the strategies employed to police the garment industry and solutions to improve the sector. Saxena is the editor and contributor of Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza, a collection of essays about the aftermath of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. She argued that the emphasis on monitoring and compliance has neglected larger issues with the global supply chain, including the extreme pressures suppliers face to quickly produce large quantities of goods at the lowest possible price. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena is director of the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies and the executive director of the Institute for South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Saxena is the editor and contributor of Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh